This invention is generally directed to airborne wind energy conversion systems and methods. Airborne wind energy conversion systems (AWES or AWECS) have been seriously considered for producing electrical power and other industrial purposes since 1970's. Nevertheless, multiple technical obstacles prevented development and commercial deployment of such systems. As with the aircraft, one way of classifying AWES is into a fixed wing and a rotary wing families. Most of the aspects of this invention relate to the rotary wing family.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,113,777 by Gianni Vergnano discusses a number of such systems, used either for ship traction or power generation. Unfortunately, he addressed neither the issues of the flight stability and control, nor efficient conversion of the harvested energy into electrical energy, thus rendering the discussion fruitless.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,421,257 by Dimitri Chernyshov discusses a more sophisticated device. Nevertheless, the discussed device is still not efficient enough because it is too heavy, wastes too much energy just to remain in the air and has to land when the wind is too weak.
Thus, there is still need for a cost efficient AWES and devices and methods thereof.